YU YU HAKUSHO 2: Season 1
by Sycondrin
Summary: Yukasa is 16 years old, and has a fairly peaceful life. Straight As and his mother's Ramen restaurant is doing well. But Yukasa wonders if his father would be proud of him, and since he's been dead for 10 years it's had to ask. But when Legion Demons come crashing into Yukasa's peaceful life, he might be able to prove himself, provided he can stay a live long enough. Up: M/F
1. Chapter 1

Official Spirit World Report:

After competing in the Makia Tournament on the January 15st for the 3rd time Yusuke Urameshi vanished. The exact time of his disappearance was 19:00:40. The time was determined after questioning Shuichi Minamino AKA Yoko Kurama and Kuzuma Kuwabara who said they began transit back to the human world with Yusuke at that time exactly. He was not found on the other side of the portal. All his diplomatic connections in the demon, human, and spirit world have been questioned with no leads forthcoming. His wife Keiko Urameshi and son Yukasa Urameshi were under surveillance for a time in hopes that the missing person would be able, though demonstrated fighting and detective skill, to return to his home on his own volition. After three weeks of investigation the case was at a standstill. No ransom demands were made.

-Spirit detective Michio Lau Case #16-Y

February 28th, 2002

Yukasa struggled to keep up with his notes. The words of his teacher seemed to be more like roses than the pine trees of North America he was describing. Beautiful lengthy sentences, but you felt a prick every once and a while because "pine cones are technically a fruit" might be on the exam. Yukasa was usually an A student, but it didn't matter how good of a student you were, it didn't prepare you for Advanced Plant Biology with Dr. Minamino. Everyone knew that he thought of plants beyond just a field of study called 'Plant Biology'. You could tell by the depths of his knowledge on any and all plants and by the way his deep green eyes would light up while describing a particularly deadly species. Yukasa couldn't pay attention to the room, or at least he tried not to, but bright light and the pictures of pine trees on the smart-board kept pulling him from the moment. His mind would drift into the pictures and he would imagine being in the pine trees climbing to the sky or getting lost his lungs filled with the fresh smell of pine tree, whatever the hell that smelled like.

The old fashioned brass school bell's clang didn't seem to matter to Dr. Minamino who finished his thought and said "Alright class, next time we will be talking about the plants of South America particularly one of my favorites the Mimosa pudica. See you tomorrow," as if he'd been planning to end there all along.

Yukasa let out an exasperated sigh and ran his fingers through his messy brown hair. He wasn't attempting to straighten it in anyway, it was just a nervous habit. Someone smacked his hand off his head and it sent a sharp pain up his arm.

"You know if you keep doing that your hair is going to fall out," said Bayton. Yukasa leaned back in his chair and got an upside down version of his childhood friend. The new angle made her blueish hair and deep green eyes look completely unnatural, even though they'd been the same as long as he'd known her for thirteen years.

"Sorry," he said politely while sitting up. "This class just kinda kills me."

"I wouldn't say you're doing that bad," Dr. Minamino said while putting his things into his brown leather briefcase.

"I got a 59 on the last pop quiz though doctor."

Dr. Minamino stopped packing and looked over toward Yukasa. "The maximum points for that exam was a 70."

"Hey eleven points can make a whole lot of difference. Especially on the Police academy exam."

gave a soft smile. "I suppose that's true, but I doubt that will cover plant biology when you take it." He walked over to the door and said "Remember Yukasa that myself, , and his wife are coming by the shop tonight for dinner. So make sure to come out of your room and say hello," and then he left the room.

"Hey I leave my room!" Yukasa said more in jest than in actual protest.

"Since when?" Bayton asked with a humph.

"All the time! I have to go down stairs to eat," Yukasa said with a smile. Bayton groaned and walked away, her blue uniform sashaying as she walked. Yukasa grabbed his backpack, and made sure to place all the notebooks in the proper pockets, then ran after Bayton.

The halls of Sarayashiki Junior High were older than the classrooms which had recently been renovated with city funds. The paint was chipping, and some walls had holes in them from fist fights a long time ago, or at least that's how Yukasa preferred to think about it rather than the whole place just being a piece of shit. As he ran after Bayton, Yukasa watched the hallway part for her like the red sea. While most people in the school thought he and Bayton were dating, even though they'd sooner die, that didn't stop all the guys from staring at her every time she walked down the hall. Even a few girls looked and those were received more favorably by Bayton. The main reason for the parting though was that no one wanted to get Bayton angry. She was in the Martial Arts club (one of three girls) and the Kendo club (the only girl and only member to have been suspended from a tournament more thanonce for being overly violent).

"You know," Yukasa said "You could always wait for me."

"You know," Bayton said "You could stop being a teacher's pet and leave on time." Bayton looked over to him and gave a slight mocking smile.

"He's a friend of my mom's. I've known the guy since I was born Bayton, I don't think you can call it being teacher's pet when he has dinner at your house every Thursday," Bayton nudged him with her elbow.

"Whatever nerd," she said with a smile.

Yukasa made a grumbling sound deep in his throat. "Having straight A's doesn't make me a nerd."

Bayton laughed. "No, but talking about it like that sure does."

Yukasa groaned again this time a little louder.

"Are you still coming to dinner tonight?" he asked.

"You kidding? It's free food from the best ramen shop in town! I wouldn't fucking miss that, even if I have to deal with you."

She laughed and it caused Yukasa to smile slightly. Not because he found the joke funny - it was really lame and he'd heard it since they were children - but because Bayton laughed so heartily. She laughed with her whole body, one arm over her mouth and the other over her stomach her entire body shaking from the laughs going through it. If he hadn't known any better, he might have thought it was the funniest thing she'd ever said or maybe even that it was actually funny. Once she was done laughing they said their good byes and headed their separate ways. He went to Academic Team practice and she went to Kendo.

Yukasa walked home from school the same way he always did after Academic Team through the 6th block and complaining about some bullshit that happened at scholar bowl. Today this shitty person was Ted Jackson, a very American boy. He was tall, had blonde hair, blue eyes, and a very American arrogance. Ted had given Yukasa the shitty buzzer. Yukasa's loss had nothing to do with his knowledge of plant biology and everything to do with Ted Jackson being an exceptionally large shit who knew that the buzzer had connection issues and almost always delayed presses or never sent them at all. He had lost 15 to 5 and was already thinking about mammalian biology which was the next subject.

He was bitching to Miyo Akiyama, who walked with him until the 7th block. She walked in silence nodding occasionally and then brushing her extremely dark and long hair out of her face. At the seventh block she said "goodbye see you tomorrow" which were her only words in the conversation and left.

Yukasa walked along the side street still brooding over his loss when he was hit on the back of his head with a stick like object. He felt the whack which hurt like hell before his mind registered that sound, and the force of the blow sent him down to the sidewalk.

He scrambled to get up and looked behind him. Bayton was standing over him, shinai in hand. Her hair was up in a bun held together with chopsticks.

"Yukasa Urameshi! I challenge you to a duel!" she screamed deepening her voice.

Yukasa stood up rubbing the back of his head. He felt the lump rising under the skin and he could tell the lump was going to be very large.

"Bayton stop!" he said slowly back peddling away from her.

"Do you have no honor child!" she screamed with a sickening smile reaching across her face. She ran at him and Yukasa turned to run. He didn't get very far he was hit in the side with the bokken. Another hard strike, but this one knocked the wind out of him. Yukasa stopped running and hoped Bayton would run into him, they were on an incline and she had just extended herself to strike him. He got what he wanted, but he misjudged his own bulk, he was about four inches taller than Bayton was but she was also abnormally strong so they both went down to the side walk. Yukasa put his hands out to brace himself and scraped his palms on the side walk. He heard Bayton's shani clatter against and dove in the direction of the sound. He got to it before she did and managed to stand up using a chain link fence behind him to help him up. Bayton sprang up, her feet spread wide in front or behind and her hands in front of her face like claws. Yukasa recognized her tiger stance, it was her favorite one she spoke about it all the time.

"Bring it on Yukasa!"

"I'm not going to fight you Bayton."

"Come on a good cop gets the subject down!"

Yukasa flipped the sword in the air. He caught the 'blade' end of the shinai with his cut up hands and he felt a sting winching slightly.

"A great cop knows when he doesn't have to fight."

Bayton dropped her hands. He knew her look of disappointment so well he could probably have drawn it with his eyes closed. Her smile fell into a frown and eyes dropped into a glare. She gave him this look every time he lost to her, which was actually every time when they were little. When they'd gotten older and he'd learned that he could refuse to fight the disappointment had gotten severe.

She walked toward him and practically ripped the sword out of his hands. The wood scraping against his bloody hand burned and he let out a small yelp.

"Shut the hell up," Bayton said between gritted teeth. As she walked down the side walk Yukasa looked down at this bloody hands trying to make sure there were no splinters. There didn't seem to be any and he could see the skin on the abrasion was already starting to heal.

That night just before dinner Yukasa went up to his room. It was a laughably small room that was painted a faded powder blue but unless you closed the door you couldn't see the walls. The door usually stayed open because he was the only room on the third floor and he was able to hide whatever he needed to when his mother came up the stairs. The room had been his father's 'study' before Yukasa had needed a room bigger than the nursery. He always felt strange about calling it a study since his father was about as likely to go to the moon as study anything. The bookcase when he had moved in was filled with mostly bad action movies from the 90s, early 2000s, and his mother's books. He'd added to that collection over the past 10 years and now his cop books and movies took up more space than his father's (some of those were also terrible, but Yukasa would never have admitted it).

He went over to the opposite side of the room to his towering dresser and moved his desk chair under his desk so he could open the dresser drawers. He pulled out a pair of dark jeans and an NYPD Tee shirt. It was one of Yukasa's favorite tees. He'd gotten it on a trip his mother and he had taken to New York when he was eight. While his mother had been impressed with the sheer size of the city and its skyscrapers Yukasa had been impressed by the size of the police department. As he unbuttoned his blue uniform shirt he remembered the tour of the Police building his mother had arranged. The cops were everywhere and as diverse as the city itself and you could tell the departments apart by the black signs with gold lettering that were hung above each. Yukasa remembered looking very intently for the missing person's department as that was where he wanted to work when he got old enough.

 _The Tour guide with a 1000 dollar smile asks him in English, "Do you want to work there so you can find your father?"_

" _No, my dad was killed by monsters," he answers in broken English at 9 years old his father only three years dead, and yet the boy feels like he's been gone for much longer._

" _By what?" the man asks with terror stricken voice._

" _Monsters like the Yakusa."_

 _The man noticeably calms. "Oh you mean Mobsters Yukasa. You had me worried there for a moment."_

As he pulled the tee shirt down over his head he felt the cool fabric rub against his back and he shivered. He didn't understand why the tour guide had been so scared when he said monsters instead of mobsters. Did the man honestly think some kind of monsters had killed his father? His father had been killed by an organized crime syndicate because he decided to report on them when they tried to run a protection scheme on his Ramen shop. It was a little out of the ordinary, but no monsters involved unless you could count the criminals who did it. His father had been a brave man for doing what he did, or that's what people told him he'd only known his father for six years of his life and now even those memories were fading.

Yukasa looked over at the picture of his father and his friends that dominated the side wall. It was only 18x25 but was framed in a flowing golden frame that shined almost unnaturally in the light of the setting sun. In the center of the photograph was his father pointing toward the camera with a finger gun hand. Yukasa walked over to the picture and did a similar gesture. This one was from when he and his father played Detectives and Demons, his father's bizarre twist on cops and robbers.

" _Make a finger gun, but lower your thumb kid it'll mess with your aim."_

"What are you doing?" Bayton said from the doorway. Yukasa looked over to his friend. He hadn't expected what he saw. Her mouth was partially open and her eyes were wide as if what she'd just seen shocked her to her very core. He lowered his hand

"Oh it's just something my father and I used to do to say goodbye."

"What do you mean?" she asked her voice high and squeaky.

"Oh he used to make me do it so say good bye every day before I went to school, and I was thinking it was time to take this picture down it's been here since before I moved in here and…"

He stopped talking. His friends look of disappointment had returned.

"I mean I barely even knew the guy Bayton."

"No. I get it. It's just…" she paused and looked at the floor. "I'm your best friend so you know if you're experiencing any changes... in your body or whatever you can tell me about them you know."

Yukasa nearly jumped back from surprise at the sudden subject change.

"Ummmm I'm 16 Bayton. I've already been through puberty."

"EW! Not that! I just mean. You'd tell me if something was going on, right?" Yukasa raised his eyebrows.

"Of course, but what are you getting at?"

Bayton opened her mouth to speak but then shut it and then looked like she was about to cry.

"Bayton are you ok?"

He watched her swallow hard and she nodded.

"Yeah," she said her voice maintaining the composure her face didn't have. "Your mom just wanted me to tell you that dinner is gonna be ready in 5… or I guess it's ready now, change your pants and come on down." The she turned down the stairs and descended. As Yuksasa changed his pants he couldn't help but think that she wasn't asking him if he was experiencing things, but that she was desperately hoping he was. Exactly what change she was looking for he really couldn't tell, and he wondered why it was so important.


	2. Chapter 2

Yukasa looked up at the small glass red and green colored bowl that served as the overhead lighting in his room. It was off right now, the only light in the room was coming from the glowing red numbers of his alarm clock that read 1:24 and the strips of moonlight that speared through his blinds and onto his bed. He had gone to bed like an hour ago and was almost asleep then he caught a glimpse of his father's picture. He wondered what his father would think of the life he was leading now. He was sixteen so it wasn't like his father could be upset with any massive life decisions, most of those had been decided by his mother. It was the way he carried himself and the way he acted that made him worry about his father's opinion. His father had been known around this town as a trouble maker with a heart of gold. The kind of guy that would fight over just about anything assuming that he was trying to help someone. His dad had been a bastard child with a violent streak that needed to prove to the world that he deserved to live in it just as much as the next guy. Yukasa himself shunned away from violence. He didn't have anything to prove to the world, like his father had. Yukasa thought back to the times when he was a child and he and his father had played games. There were a lot of games and they were all very strange. Demons and detectives had the weirdest twist because sometimes Yukasa (the detective) and his dad (the demon) would team up and go after someone else (usually his mother) human or demon. In a game modeled after cops and robbers it had a strange moral ambiguousness to it. It was like his father wanted him to see things in more than black and white. So he wondered if because his life was so normal, so on track, it would shame his father who used to say "Don't let the world tell you what you are or what you have to be."

But what if he and the world agreed? And Did he actually agree or was this just the easiest way?

The Yukasa knew something was wrong the moment Bayton walked into 's class room. The way she shuffled instead of her usually assertive walk, the constant look away when he tried to make eye contact, but of course the biggest give away was when she told him after class.

"I'm moving back to America," she said. Yukasa knew that his friend was an exchange student that her family actually lived in America, it was the way he'd been able to get a tour of the New York police department, but he'd never considered that she could ever go back.

"Why?" he asked his voice quiet and stunned.

"It's not like I really want to. My family just wants me to come home."  
"When are you leaving?" he saw her eyes get glassy with tears.

"Tomorrow?" she said with a labored voice.

"WHAT! You haven't even finished school! You're only a few months away from graduation!"

"Look they wanted me to move when the school year started, but I convinced them to let me stay," she said. She looked over to the window, Yukasa noticed that her hair was already up in a bun.

"Are you leaving right after school?" he asked. She raised her eyebrows. "You already have your hair up. You only do it that way after Kendo because it gets the hair out of your face, and you prefer to have it that way. So you're not going to Kendo."

Bayton smiled, and said through slight sobs "You're gonna be a great detective Yukasa."

He got up out of his chair and hugged Bayton. He pressed her closer to him with a squeeze.

"It's fine I get it," he let go of her and grabbed her shoulders. "Just expect calls every day ok?" he continued even though it was hard to speak passed the knot in his throat. "I want all the details on New York! I want to be just like a local before I even show up!" He could feel the wetness of tears on his cheeks.

She jumped at him and hugged him.

He looked around and noticed that most of the students were gone, and the three that weren't were staring at them.

"I have to run now…" she said. "Got a flight to catch after all." Then she turned to walk out of the room. The usual sashay in her step gone and replaced with an almost military like straight forward stride.

"Wait so this is-?" he said when she got just passed the door.

"Goodbye," she said without turning around and then she walked away.

Suddenly the wait of what had just happened fell onto Yukasa's shoulders. He fell more than sat into the seat behind him. He barely felt the hard plastic chair connect with his ass even though it had to have some serious force behind it. He couldn't help but rethinking off all the fun he and Bayton had over the years. When they were little she and he were basically attached at the hip and even took names together. The other kids tried to tease him for the naps as well as him just being a general nerd, but Bayton would fight them off with a smile. When his dad had died, she had started playing Demons and Detectives with him, though in her version the demons were always the bad guys. She'd been his friend all his life, so he wondered what it would be like to try and live without her.

"Are you going to be okay Yukasa?" asked. He was suddenly right in front of Yukasa.

Yukasa smiled slightly. "Let me get back to you on that," he said. Yukasa collected his thing as left the room.

"If you need anything, just let me know," he said at the doorframe.

"It's not like she's dead. I'll see her again I'm sure," Yukasa said as he slid his computer into the back of his laptop and zipped up his bag. Dr. Minamino turned to face Yukasa.

"America is a faraway place Yukasa, remember that," he said his deep green eyes looking particularly blank. Then he walked out.

"Great pep talk," Yukasa said as he left the room and turned off the lights.

The academic bowl practice that day did nothing but boost Ted's already enormously large ego. The final score was 20 to 0, and Yukasa couldn't give less of a shit. He left academic bowl early, he'd told the coach he wasn't feeling well. It was mostly true, that day he'd figured out his best friend was leaving him forever which wasn't known to boost morale.

As he walked down the hall, he realized how quiet the halls of Sarayashiki Junior High when you don't have anyone to talk to. He pulled his phone out, put in his headphones, and started his music. The first song that came on was a mostly instrumental British pop tune. Bayton was the one that had told him about the artist. He skipped the song.

 _"I never liked Celeste anyway,"_ he thought as he opened the back door. _"Shit."_

Outside leaning against the chain-link fence were three tall, scraggily looking teenagers, with creepy smiles and cigarettes. All Yukasa wanted at that moment was for them not to say anything to him. He just wanted to go home, eat a lot, and sleep a lot. He didn't think that was too much to ask.

"Hey, kid," the tallest and scraggliest one said.

Apparently it was a lot. He just kept walking not making eye contact with them and he began bobbing his head up and down to pretend as if he hadn't heard them.

The shortest one, who was still a little taller than Yukasa, walked over, blocked Yukasa's path and yelled, "Hey, the boss wants to talk to you Yukasa!"

" _Oh shit,"_ he thought, as he removed his head phones _. "They know my name, probably got it from the posted test scores and either want to use me to cheat or bully me like really classy people."_

"Look guys, I'm having a really bad day could we reschedule this for Monday? If you want my 'help' on a test or something that's a great time," he did air quotes with his help.

"We don't need your help with anything," the boss said.

"Oh than you want to kick me while I'm down huh? Then let's just get it over with. Just say something and I'll just start acting offended and hurt. I would recommend Yu-suck-a. It's quiet popular, a pun, and is still slightly offensive."

The boss got off the fence and laughed. "Wow, this kid's got jokes!" He walked over to stand in front of Yukasa. "I was expecting a lot threats like your dumbass daddy!"

"Insulting the dead father, haven't seen that one in a while, but I always like to see the classics come back in style. Can I go now or do you need me to cry first? I don't do a lot of tears but the emotion is really there."

The boss reared back and kicked Yukasa in the stomach. The force of the blow knocked the wind out of Yukasa and sent him flying back three to four feet. His back pack took most of the force as he fell to the ground, and his head snapped backward and managed to hit both the ground and the pack at the same time. He inhaled deeply and tried to roll over, but the pain in his stomach made him stay the way he was resembling a turtle on its back.

Yukasa heard the shortest one dying of laughter. "You knocked him right on his ass boss!"

"'Course I did!" the voice of the boss answered. "What did I tell you guys? Easiest assassination we'll ever have to do! No spirit energy, mad respect from the legion, and even a nice juicy human soul!"

The third kid got off the fence and stretched his wings tearing out of his shirt.

" _Wings?"_ Yukasa screamed in his mind. Yukasa took off his back pack and forced himself to sit up. He almost wished he hadn't. The shortest one had turned a deep blue, his eyes now looked like a reptiles, but the most notable change was the long reptilian tail that encircled his legs. The boss had gone with a deep blood red, opted for the same eyes, and four inch horns.

"What are you?" Yukasa asked struggling to speak.

The boss turned to look at Yukasa and laughed again. "I guess you've never seen a demon before! Well lemme give you a crash course: Demons come in all shapes and sizes and can eat human souls. It's gone out of fashion since your father's damned friends made it illegal, but this trio right here happens to work for the best guy in town who agrees that humans are a delicacy… and I'm so fucking famished!"


	3. Chapter 3

Yukasa was a quick study, but all that crash course was extremely uninformative in the things he actually cared about like: what the hell his father had to do with demons and who was this 'best guy in town' because from on the ground with his henchman about to eat him Yukasa didn't think the guy deserved that moniker. Yukasa looked around, the demons were blocking the exit, but the school door he'd exited out of wasn't locked.

He scrambled to his feet and made a dash for the door while screaming, "Help! I'm being attacked! Somebody help!"

It was not one of his prouder moments, but he could tell he was way out matched. Suddenly, he felt something thin and powerful around his right ankle, it reminded him of a vine and that something began to lift him into the air. When he was turned around he realized he was being held upside down by the blue guy's tail, and that the demons were laughing. They were laughing so hard the one with wings was actually rolling on the ground.

"Holy shit!" the boss screamed. "This kid is a fucking riot! Son of the most feared Spirit Detective ever and he runs and screams like a goddamned little girl!"

The tail moved Yukasa into arms reach of the blue guy. Maybe it was the blood rushing to his head, maybe it was being constantly compared to his father, or maybe it was just the simple need for survival, but regardless of the reason Yukasa punched the blue guy directly in the face, swinging his body to put force behind the punch.

"Yowwww!" the blue guy screamed as he dropped Yukasa to the ground.

Yukasa managed to turn and land on his shoulder. He screamed as he felt his shoulder bone connect with the concrete, but he didn't let the pain distract him. He swung his legs at the feet of the blue guy, and kicked them out from under him. When the blue guy hit the ground, Yukasa leapt up, his shoulder screaming in pain, and punched the red guy directly in the groin with his good arm.

The red guy also screamed, but it was more of a growl of pain. Yukasa turned around and started sprinting toward the school door holding his shoulder and still screaming for help. He was actually able to make it, but as he attempted to shove the door open, he realized it was locked.

"Did you think we'd be so fucking stupid and leave the door unlocked?" the red one screamed from behind him.

Yukasa threw his good shoulder at the door and he felt it move. He smashed it again and it flung open. Yukasa fell into the hall way, his knees smashing into the tile, he barely noticed the pain though because standing in front of him was Bayton. He had a lot of questions for her, like why hadn't she left yet, what was she still doing at the school, and most importantly why was she dressed like she was cosplaying some anime character? She was wearing a deep blue leotard, a black sash around her waist, over her shoulders was a thin black metal, she had a matching breast plate, hip, shin, and leg guards and sandals. The whole outfit looked like the bare necessities package for the Black Knight.

"Bayton!" Yukasa screamed. "We have to get out of here there are these demons that are trying to-"

"I know," Bayton answered her voice incredibly calm and collected. "Stay here and no matter what happens, don't get involved." Bayton walked out the door her sashay back in her step. As soon as she was out of the door frame she pulled the chopsticks out of her hair, one in each hand. Suddenly they became surrounded in a deep blue energy and they began to grow.

One turned into a dark blue wooden sheath, and the other into a katana. It was a strange katana though. The hilt was regular, and the blade was wooden, but not in the way of a bokken, but rather it was one solid piece of wood, seemingly without imperfections, cut and carved into the shape of a katana blade. Bayton slide the blade into its sheath and slid the whole into her sash. The demons began walking toward her. Bayton put her left foot in front of her, her left hand on the sheath and the right hand hovered just above the hilt.

The demons stopped. Their smug smirks gone from their faces.

"There's no way you can hit us from over there. Why'd you get in your stance?" the winged one said.

"You either don't know anything about sword styles or me. So let me introduce myself, though it's mostly for Yukasa since you guys will be dead in a few seconds."

The demons spread out slightly Yukasa could see them tensing up, their hands twitching in anticipation.

"My name is Bayton Tsunemori. I use the Hiten Mitsurugi style which has given me the nickname of 'The Reaper Battosai'." Yukasa couldn't see it from his angle but he could've sworn she was smiling.

"I don't suppose," Bayton continued. "You guys would be willing to surrender now?"

"Fuck you, Bitch!" the boss said.

"Oh I was hoping you'd say that."

Yukasa thought he had blinked, because one second Bayton was close to the doors sword sheathed and the next she was in front of the blue guy with her sword slashing up diagonally across his chest. Immediately after the blade fully exited the sheath she sheathed it and moved toward the boss who swung at her. She dodged in under the swing and pulled her blade this time slashing laterally across his gut. The guy with wings took off, and Bayton jumped up above him. She was about 15 feet in the air when she pulled her sword and began slashing down wards. The demon spun at the last minute avoiding the main strike of the sword, but Bayton forced her sword out further by fully extending her arms and clipped one of the demon's wings. The demon flew away and Bayton landed on the ground with an audible crash. It all took maybe a second after she stopped talking.

"Shit," she said looking at the demon flying away. She turned to face Yukasa and smiled politely as one does to a child.

"This is the part where my life gets really weird isn't it?" he said.

"You were just attacked by Demons what do you think?"  
"I think I have no idea who the Legion is." Yukasa said as he managed to stand up. Bayton sheathed her sword and walked over to Yukasa.

"It's a group of demons who hate the ruling party of demon world," Bayton paused. "That probably didn't make any sense."

"No it makes perfect sense. The Legion hates the ruling party of Demon World. When my dad was a spirit detective he helped put the ruling party in power. So the legion wants to kill me because he's already dead. Also that winged guy is going to get more assholes from the Legion so we need to get moving."

"No, that's-" Bayton stopped. "Actually from what I know that's exactly what's happening. You really are a good detective." Bayton crossed over to Yukasa and grabbed his shoulder. "Can you move it?"  
Yukasa winched at the pain and nodded no.

"Okay then," Bayton said. "This is gonna hurt. A lot."

Yukasa felt his bones clatter together as they were shoved back into alignment.

"Oh fuck," Yukasa screamed. "You weren't kidding." He clamped his jaw shut with all his strength waiting for the pain to subside. Bayton pulled her blade from the sheath then slid the hilt of the Katana into it. It began to glow with the same dark blue energy he'd seen before. Then Bayton dropped it, but a foot before it hit the ground it simply stopped falling and floated in the air. Yukasa shot Bayton a strange look because his jaw was still clenched.

"I use it instead of an oar," Bayton said. "It's less to carry that way."

Yukasa shook his head and raised his eyebrows in confusion.

"Oh yeah," Bayton said. "You have no idea what that means." She jumped onto the tip of her floating sword sheath, looking like the figure head of a ship. "Basically when people die, beings like me find their souls and help then journey into spirit world. Most of the time we have oars… and most of the time we don't fight demons."

"Why do you?" Yukasa asked, the pain finally having subsided, but still not feeling up to moving his arm.

"I'm a special case. Now get on. I'll fly us to spirit world where you'll be safe for a little while."

Yukasa walked over to the floating sword. In the corner of his eye he caught movement, and looked over to follow it. From this distance the black figure in the sky could easily have been confused with sparrow, but looking closely at it Yukasa could distinguish legs. He pointed with his good arm at the flying thing.

"Shit," Bayton said. "It's just one though so we could probably avoid it-" Yukasa stopped listen to her at that point. He noticed three more flying figures coming from the east, and they were much bigger.

"Bayton," he said pointing at the other figures. "We need to get inside. They have the advantage out here."

Bayton nodded. While she deconstructed her oar substitute and the blade end back into the sheath she said, "Ok, text your mother, , and Mr. Kuabara the words 'Bayton is sick'. That's our distress signal."

Yukasa pulled out his phone and typed the message to , but before he sent it he heard a noise from the sky that was somehow both the screech of an owl and the roar of a lion. Bayton grabbed his good arm and pulled him inside.

"Text while we run damnit!"

Being 16 Yukasa was constantly questioning his choices in life. Was it a good idea to take Advanced Plant Bio even though it was really hard? Should he have asked Miyo Akiyama to the festival of lights just so he hadn't been alone? He was now realizing just how stupid it had been to quit soccer. He hadn't liked soccer really at all, but he liked the pounding in his chest and the wheezing to get air into his body a lot less.

He knew the answer to the question before he asked it. "Can we slow down?"

"Yeah sure and I'll strike up a campfire here in the hall way to make sure they have something to roast you on."

"I hate you. Where are we going exactly?"

"Anywhere we can find a car."

As the rounded a corner Bayton suddenly stopped running. Yukasa tried to stop too, but his uniform shoes didn't have great grip and he slammed into the back of Bayton. Her sword shot from her sheath and clattered across the hallway floor. When she dove for it Yukasa saw why she'd stopped.

It was about 8 feet tall and had skin the color of freshly poured concrete. Its eyes were large black orbs, and around its head was a mane like a lion. It was massive. Yukasa had hoped that Bayton would be fast enough to grab her sword before the thing got to her, but she was closer to it than the sword and it grabbed her arm. It pulled her into its chest and wrapped the other arm around her.

"Me Mongious. You die. Then boy die. Mongious eat boy through. Human tasty."

Yukasa moved toward the sword, but Mongious just kicked it down the hall. Yukasa didn't know how much time Bayton had, but he doubted it would be enough time to go run to the sword and try to kill Mongious with it.

"Spirit gun," Bayton said her voice faint and labored.

It was a strange flash of understanding that came to Yukasa. Why his father had his hand in a finger gun position in almost every picture, why he when he was little had been forced to learn a very specific way to fire an imaginary hand gun, and why Bayton had freaked out when she saw him doing it again last night. His father had to have some kind of technique that involved putting his hand like that, and Bayton thought Yukasa must be able to do it too.

He tried to remember exactly what his father used to say and followed the instructions again.

 _Feet shoulder length apart,_

 _One hand cupping the underside of the gun for steadiness,_

 _Make a finger gun with the other hand_

 _Lower your thumb kid it'll mess with your aim._

 _Squeeze the trigger in your mind._

"BANG!" Yukasa screamed with all his might. Nothing happened.

"BANG BANG!" he screamed again. The only thing that happened this time was Mongious began laughing quite heartily.

"Ho ho ho!" it bellowed. The beast was so loud the halls seemed to echo in response, joining him in laughing at Yukasa.

Yukasa ran at Mongious, but even throwing his full weight into a tackle did nothing to Mongious, other than causing more laughter. Yukasa was about to run and get the sword, when suddenly the laughter stopped, and he heard Bayton take a deep breath. He looked up to the beast's head and in the center of his forehead was a bright red rose. The beast toppled onto its back with an incredibly loud thud, and Yukasa could see that the beast was dead. Yukasa ran over to Bayton and helped her off of Mongious.

"Hey I didn't do that," he said wanting to alert her to a possible threat.

"Of course not," said a familiar voice from behind. "I did." Yukasa turned to see his teacher .

"You have spirit powers too?" Yukasa asked in confusion.

"No," said with an emotionless expression. "Think of me as a demon who is on your side."

Yukasa felt himself jerk back in surprise. His teacher didn't resemble any of the demon's he'd seen today, but he remembered the words of the red demon from earlier. _Demon's come in all shapes and sizes._

"Do you work for the ruling party of demon world?" Yukasa asked. His teacher smiled in response.

"You have always been a quick study. No, I worked with your father while he was the spirit detective. Do you understand?"

"Let's say I have a working knowledge," Yukasa responded.

"Good now I have a plan for you two to-" began, but he was cut off by a chorus of noises from around the corner. The sounds ranged from the sound of a house cat yowling to the guttural sound of a bullfrog.

"That sounds like a lot," Yukasa said turning to run, but grabbed his arm.

"There's only seven of them and your exit is down this corridor," he turned to Bayton. "Grab your sword."

She made a dash over to her sword, then sheathed it, and when she finished she ran back over and stood next to Yukasa.

"How many do you need me to take?" she asked getting in her drawing stance.

"None I just needed you to move it out of the way," he said as he walked up to stand in front of Yukasa. "Now please, stay calm."

reached behind his long red hair and pulled out six fully grown roses. Yukasa hadn't seen anything behind his had before, but he had never looked before for roses in his teacher's hair. held the roses by the stems three in each hand and. When the demon's managed to make it around the corner he threw the roses. At the end of the hall Yukasa saw the roses sprout in the heads of three demons and in the chests of three more. There was one that stood in the center, it was a small blue man looking demon. It was turning back and forth looking at its fallen comrades in confusion. reached behind his hair again and pulled out another rose, but this time he was holding it by the flower.

"Rose whip!" he screamed as he swung his arm left. The stem of the rose lengthened considerably and wrapped around the neck of the last demon, and with another yank to the left the head of the demons came off and hit the window with a thud and a splat. The head rolled right to where Bayton's sword had been moments before. The black blood splatter on the window reminded Yukasa of a bug on a windshield.

"Whoa," Bayton said.

"You haven't seen him fight before?" Yukasa asked trying not to sound as amazed and star struck as her.

"No," she said with a wispy breath. "We haven't had any problems before now."

turned around and tossed some car keys to Bayton.

"They're for the black Toyota right outside the south exit. Don't stop for anything. Drive straight to your home. It's the most fortified location we have. I'll meet you there when I am done here."

"My house is fortified?" Yukasa asked.

held up his whip.

"If I can do this with a simple rose seed, what do you think I've done to the garden at your home?"

Yukasa shuddered as he thought of giant venues fly traps bursting from the flowers in his yard and eating demons whole. While he didn't mind the protection he wondered if the plants knew the difference between the demons and him.

"Go now," said.

Bayton grabbed Yukasa's arm and they ran down the hall. 


	4. Chapter 4

Yukasa sat in the passenger seat griping the oh shit handle that was above the window. He'd never been a fan of Bayton's driving because every left turn she took made him think he was participating in that strange NASCAR sport the Americans did. With demons after him he didn't mind the speeding, however he couldn't help but grab the oh shit handle at every turn. He was trying to relax and get some energy back from all the running when Bayton began to talk.

"How are you holding up?" she asked.

"Fine. Trying to get a little rest now so when we need to start running again I'm ready," he said.

"Oh, I was totally talking about adjusting to the whole 'there's demons and most of them want you dead' thing," she said.

The question caught him off guard. He hadn't really been thinking about it. His day had been very frightening, but people trying to kill you would do that. The demon thing actually didn't feel strange to him, but rather like a piece of a puzzle falling into place, which made less sense than the demons attacking him. But it would have made sense to the tour guide in New York and explain why Mr. Kuwabara felt so strongly about his father and why he and his mother never had any problems with mobsters and why Bayton had asked him that strange question the other night though he still didn't fully understand it. In fact, the more Yukasa thought about his life the more he realized just how strange it had been and just how the 'there's demons and most of them want you dead' thing actually made a lot of sense.

"I'm scared but fine," he finally answered.

"Wow literally thought you were not going to answer because you were that freaked out," she responded.

"It actually makes a whole lot of sense," he said. "There's still a few things I don't get, but I'm working on it."

"Well we have a minute or two anything really pressing on your mind?" Bayton asked as she ran a red light and hooked a hard right.

"Why did you ask me that question last night?" he asked.

Bayton leaned further back into the chair and glued her eyes to the road.

"I was asking you if you had spirit powers," she said.

"Yeah I got that, but why did you ask me last night? Did you know this was going to happen or something?"

"No," she said.

"So why did you ask?" he pressed.

"Because they were going to assign me to a new VIP today if you did not develop powers. There was 17 years without an incident, and they figured there would never be one."

"So you were some kind of grow up with me body guard? Shouldn't they hire someone older and with any experience?"

"What are you talking about I'm like 700 years old?"

Yukasa jerked his head around so fast it actually caused Bayton to jump a little.

"You're what!" he screamed in surprise.

"Oh yeah totally immortal did I forget to mention that?"

"Yes!"

"Oh well glad we cleared that up," she said as she slammed on the brakes. Yukasa felt his head smack against the head rest from the recoil.

Bayton leaped out of the car, and yelled "Come on!"

Yukasa got out of the door and looked over at his house.

There were no giant Venus Fly Traps, and for that Yukasa was thankful. Whatever fortification Dr. Minamino was talking about wasn't there, but the normal appearance was scarier to Yukasa than any demon he'd seen yet. He ran into his house.

The Ramen shop on the bottom floor of his house was filled with people as usual. Most were slurping their ramen, but Yukasa noticed a group of kids his age to the right of the door in the largest red booth who were screaming and laughing. Yukasa had seen one or two of them from school, but they were all of different uniforms it was all so normal compared to his day that it was giving Yukasa a kind of culture shock. He wondered briefly if any of these people knew about demons other than his mother. He then wondered if any of these people were demons in disguise and grabbed Bayton's hand. She looked at the hand with her eye brows raised and back up to him.

"Hey thanks for the interest but I've already told you I don't swing that way," she said with a mocking smile.

"Not a joking time," Yukasa said. "Is there a way to tell if any of these people are demons in disguise?"

Bayton quickly scanned the room.

"Sometimes if you have amazing energy sensing like Mr. Kuwabara, but usually no," she said. "But I think the defenses that Kurama planted are still up and they should just block out all demon energy accept his."

"What do you mean 'think they're still up'?"

"Well it's a force field that's triggered when it comes into contact with demon energy and the only way to break it without having a literal horde attacking this place would be-" Bayton stopped suddenly and rescanned the room, but this time it looked frantic and scared.

"Would be what?" Yukasa asked.  
"If a demon was more powerful than Kurama could break it as soon as it formed," she finished her eyes still searching.

Yukasa started looking too, though he had absolutely no idea what he was looking for. Would a demon that powerful be as large as Mongious, or would they look like a human similar to Dr. Minamino? Demons come in all shapes and sizes, but Yukasa really wished there was some kind of list he could look at. He saw a big burly guy in the corner with a thick moustache who already had a beer in his hand, but would demons drink? He also looked at a thin man in a dark suit at a middle booth with a woman under each arm, but did demons like human woman? And who's to say the demons were the women? The more he looked the more he realized that he knew precisely jack-shit about demons other than their political structure.

He was pulled out of his panic by a tug on his hand.

"He's not here," Bayton said. "We need to go find your mother now." She began pulling him toward the back room.

"Wait you were looking for someone in particular?"

"Yeah," she said not turning back to him.

"Do you want to tell me who it is?" Yukasa asked feeling like a child having to ask his mom who his crazy uncle was. "I know your job is to protect me, but I think we're passed the time for secrecy."

She released his hand, stopped, and turned to him. She did it so quickly he didn't have time to move away so she was only inches from his face.

"His name is Shura. He is the leader of the Legion and he hates your father more than anyone I've ever seen hate. He's also one of the most powerful demons I've ever seen," her voice faltered and then she continued. "If you see him run like hell."

"I do that with every demon," he replied.

"Yeah but if we see him I'll be joining you." She walked into the crowd and toward the back rooms.

Yukasa stood in the center of the restaurant to let his heart calm down from a race he didn't know he'd been running. He was scared out of his mind from a man he'd never met. He'd been running all day, but only now did he finally feel the fear sink in. His heart picked up the pace again and as he walked to the back room he wondered if it would ever slow down again.

His mother's office was the counterpart to his own room, but on the first floor. It was laughably small, and the space was mostly taken up by two greying filing cabinets that obstructed the windows, two small plush red chairs, and his mother's large brown desk. Seated at the desk typing away at her computer was his mother Keiko Urameshi. She looked young, but being close to 40 now wrinkles and crow's feet were emerging and if you looked closely enough you could see a few grey hairs mixed in with the brown that Yukasa had inherited. When she looked up from the computer his mother didn't waste any time.

"So demons are here huh?" She asked as she stood up from her desk and walked over to the filing cabinet.

"Mom have they been here?"

"No, I was assuming that from Bayton's ferry man outfit," she said while reaching in the filing cabinet. She pulled out a silver revolver with a short barrel, Yukasa recognized it as a Smith and Wesson, but he'd never seen this particular gun before. He was so surprised all he could say was.

"I didn't know we had that."

"Your father gave it to me for demon problems," his mother responded her voice quiet and distant. Then suddenly she came back her eye wide and her voice panicked. "Did you die Yukasa?"

"What?" he asked in confusion. "No I'm perfectly fine. Why do you ask?" She ran to him and hugged him. She pulled away with a smile and her eyes shined.

"I'll go out and tell the customers to leave. You stay here with Bayton," she said. Then she left the room.

After a second for the shock to wear off he turned to Bayton and asked "So why did she think I died?"

"Oh well your father did," she said.

"I know, but what does that have to do with this?"

"OH shit," she said with a smile. "Yeah you don't know. Your dad actually died like 3 times. The first one he was brought back by my boss and became the spirit detective."

"Did demons kill him?" Yukasa asked.

"No, Demons usually eat human souls if they kill them."

Yukasa swallowed the knot in his throat.

"It was actually a car accident," she continued. "I wasn't involved with these guys until you were born, but from what I know he was pushing a little boy out of the way of the car and got hit instead."

Yukasa smiled and nodded. "Yeah that sounds like my dad."

There was silence for a few seconds and Yukasa caught a glimpse of the calendar. It had a picture of a small grey kitten with blue eyes on the top and on the bottom each day was marked off with a black X until today. Yukasa looked at that date carefully and them a thought occurred to him.

"Why did the legion attack today?" he asked Bayton.

"I told you because Shura wants revenge."

"Yeah but why today? Could Shura have known today you were leaving?"  
"No they made the call this morning," Bayton said looking over Yukasa.

"And I haven't developed sprit powers or anything, so it's not something I could have done," he said.

"What are you thinking Yukasa?"

"Something just doesn't seem right here," he said interlocking his fingers like he did when he was thinking. "I mean, why today? If it is just for revenge than why not go after mom too? We got here before the demons and there were a lot at school so there's no shortage of man power. I think they are only going after me today for a reason."

"What made you start thinking on this?"

"It was the date."

"I thought you said there wasn't anything important today?"  
"There isn't, but tomorrow is the anniversary of my father's death."

His mother reentered the office.

"Ok all of the customers are gone. Do you have the sprit gun or something else?"

Yukasa cringed as the thought of Mongious laughing at him crossed his mind.

"Actually I don't have any spirit powers mom."

"Oh I'm sorry baby," she said like any mother would. "Just give it time I'm sure you'll be fine."

Suddenly the light the was coming in above the filing cabinets turned a bright green.

"Damn," Bayton said as she pulled out her chopsticks. "It looks like they're here."


	5. Chapter 5

A few moments later Yukasa was outside the restaurant watching Bayton examine a demon body. It resembled the winged demon he'd seen earlier, but now it looked like they had been struck by lightning. She was having some difficulties because he was on the other side of the force field that now surrounded his house. The field was bright lime green and resembled glass because the surface seemed incredibly smooth. It was hard to look at it and think that it had just showed up at his house, it was so smooth that it looked like a permanent structure rather than a makeshift wall that had just appeared here.

"Yeah I got no idea why this guy died," Bayton said standing up and shrugging. "My best guess is that this field isn't a barricade but rather a kind of death wall."

Yukasa looked up at the giant bubble he was surrounded by and wondered if it could fall onto him.

"Don't worry it looks like it only kills demons," Bayton said crossing over to Yukasa.

Yukasa let out the breath he'd been holding.

"Good how long do you think it will hold?" he asked. Bayton just shrugged in response, but a familiar voice answered.

"Kurama said that depending on how many demons rush themselves at it, could be anywhere from 2 to 24 hours."

Yukasa looked as Mr. Kuzuma, the police chief crossed through the forcefeild.

"Mr. Kuzuma!" Yukasa said. "Let me guess you're involved in all this demon stuff too." Mr. Kuzuma made a fist in front of his face and sudden Golden energy emerged. It extended out from his hand until it was a little bit shorter than a long sword then it sharpened. There was no mistaking it, his mother's friend was wielding a spirt energy sword.

"Kid I'm not just involved. I'm feared throughout the demon world and spirit world as 'Kuabara Kuzuma: The Man with The Dimensional Sword!"

"And as a super modest guy," Bayton whispered to Yukasa.

Mr. Kuzuma pointed the sword at Bayton and it extended until it was just a few inches from her face.

"Watch it Reaper," he said with a smile.

"Well I'm glad to see that we're all getting along," said a voice from the other side of the field. Yukasa looked over and saw Dr. Minamino coming toward the field. He raised his hand in warning about the demon energy wall, but Dr. Minamino crossed through the field without any problems.

"I designed the field to only allow my demon energy through. Though thank you for your concern," he said. He didn't look like he'd been fighting demons. His clothes were still completely unscathed, the only way Yukasa knew he'd been fighting was the sweat stains on his shirt and his rolled up sleeves. Dr. Minamino looked around. "Where is your mother Yukasa?"

"She's inside," he responded.

"You should go with her. It's too dangerous to have you out here." Yukasa wanted to argue with him, but he knew he was right.

Suddenly there was a bright flash of green light and another demon corpse rolled down the force field.

"Shit. They've got to know we're here now," Mr. Kuzuma said. "Yukasa get out of here." He walked over to the door to his house but before he went in he heard Mr. Kuzuma say.

"Yukasa, remember you only have one spirit bullet so use it-"

"I don't have any spirit powers Mr. Kuzuma," he said as he opened the door. When he closed it he could swear that these walls were laughing at him too.

The flashes of green light were getting more and more frequent to the point that there were happening almost every second.

 _How man demons are on this guy's side?_ Yukasa thought.

"Yukasa?" his mother asked. It was strange how much change can happen in a few minutes. His mother who had seemed so young with just a few signs of age a few minutes ago now looked so tired, fragile, and old.

"Yeah mom?" he said being soft with his voice.

"Do you have any questions about your father? Now that we can talk about his real life."

 _Only about a million_ he thought. What was being a spirit detective like? How had he met Mr. Kuzuma and Dr. Minamino? How did he die three times? But the more questions he thought of the more he realized there was really only one that he actually cared about.

"Do you think if dad were still alive…he'd care that I didn't have spirit powers?"

His mom opened her mouth to speak, but stopped.

 _Of course he'd care,_ Yukasa thought. _He'd probably think I was some kind of failure._

"No he would not care," his mother finally said. "He used to dote on you son. I had to be the one to discipline you because he couldn't do it. Don't you remember how when you said you wanted to be a baseball player he played catch with you for three days and then when on the fourth day you said you wanted to play soccer he went out and bought you a ball?"

His mother placed the gun on the desk and walked over to him placing her hand over his.

"You're always so worried about getting your father's approval, but I promise you son he'd love anything you wanted to do with your life. Because he loved you."

Yukasa latched onto his mother and tried to blink the tears out of his eyes.

"Aw it's so fucking sweet I think I'm gonna vomit!" Yukasa pulled away from his mother to see a demon standing at the door. He was humanoid in nature, but had cat ears peeking out of his long white hair.

Yukasa stood up, but realized quickly that there was nowhere for him to run, the demon was blocking the only exit.

"How'd you get in here?" Yukasa asked hoping for any way to stall. The demon chuckled.

"Well I figured that Kurama had made it so he could pass through the barrier and I have pretty similar energy to him so I just changed it a little and walked right in!" An orb of red energy appeared in the demon's hand. He fired and the energy came barreling toward Yukasa. He braced for the impact, but it never hit him. At the last second his mom took the bullet for him. She fell to the ground the red energy jumped across her corpse.

"Well she was the bonus prize, but I guess it's not that bad if she goes first. Shura won't care."

Yukasa felt like his gut had been hollowed out as he looked at his mother at his feet. He felt tears building in his eyes, but when he saw the demon getting another energy orb ready everything changed. His hollowed out gut filled with molten lead and he raised his hand and followed his father's instructions again.

 _Feet shoulder length apart,_

 _One hand cupping the underside of the gun for steadiness,_

 _Make a finger gun with the other hand_

 _Lower your thumb kid it'll mess with your aim._

 _Now squeeze the trigger in your mind._

 _Fire on the exhale._

"Spirit Gun!" he screamed.

Yukasa felt his energy leave the tip of his finger. It was a bright blue bullet of energy. The demon fired his orb at it, but Yukasa's bullet went right through it and collided with the demon's head splattering it all over the door way.

Yukasa fell to his knees. He was completely exhausted. He tried to hold himself up with his hands, but soon his vision blurred and he passed out.


	6. Chapter 6

Yukasa's eyes fluttered open and the first thing he noticed was the deep red light of the sunset coming though his blinds in his room they were further away from him so he thought he must be on the floor next to his bed. The next thing he realized was that there was a lack of green tinting in the light.

The first thing he said was "Shit."

"Are you in pain Yukasa?" asked a voice next to him.

Yukasa rolled his head and saw Mrs. Kuwabara next him.

Yukasa sighed. He shouldn't be surprised that people from his life also were involved in the world of demons and spirits, but had always been so kind and gentle. He hoped she was blissfully unaware, like he'd used to be.

"Are you a human with spirit powers?

"No," she said softly. "I'm a demon. I specialize in ice and healing. Kurama needed me to help with you and your mother."

At the mention of his mother Yukasa looked back up at the ceiling and tried to blink the tears out of his eyes, but he was too tired to fight them now. The tears came and they weren't going to stop anytime soon.

"What the hell are you crying for?"

Yukasa sat up slightly and saw Bayton leaning against the door and standing in the door frame was . They were both in much worse shape than when he'd last seen them. Bayton's armor had claw marks on it and pieces were either missing or had been bitten off. He couldn't really tell which. had lost the right sleeve of his shirt and on his left arm there was a thick bandage and Yukasa could see the pinkish stain of blood from the wound underneath.

"Mom," he managed to get out with the sobs.

He felt place a hand on his shoulder. It was frigid cold, but somehow it was still calming.

"Yukasa your mother is alive."

"What?" he said as the tears subsided.

"She's on the bed, you moron," Bayton groaned.

"What!" he said again. He sat up against his body's protest and got up to see the top of the bed. "Mom I'm..." he stopped when he saw that his mother was lying unconscious on the bed a towel on her head. The tears came back and he grabbed her hand.

"She's alive," Mrs. Kuwabara said. "But the demon's energy affected her internal organs to the point where Kurama's healing wasn't enough. So they had to break the barrier and bring me in. She's stable, but she hasn't woken up yet. I'd like to take her to my hospital, but…"

"The last wave of demons was only 30 minutes ago," Bayton said. "And we have no idea when the next one will be."

Yukasa's gut felt hollowed out again at the thought of Bayton fighting demons trying to kill him.

"I have to leave," he said standing up fully. "The demon that attacked me and mom said that I was the real target and mom was just a bonus. If I leave they will stop attacking, and you guys might get a chance to-"

"Hell no!" Bayton said her eyes cold with determination.

Yukasa tightened his grip on his mother's hand.

"I can't let anyone else get hurt because of me! I don't care if it's your job or not!"

Bayton crossed over to him and getting only a few inches from his face.

"You think I'm doing this for my job? I couldn't give less of a shit about spirit world right now!" She exhaled deeply getting calmer. "You're my best friend, and I'll go to limbo before I let you run off and basically commit suicide." Yukasa could hear the fear in her voice.

"But Bayton what are the odds of use surviving?"

"Look if we can last another day spirit world will send reinforcements," she said.

"Do you believe we'll last that long?"

She put her hands into fists and clenched her jaw.

"Damnit," she said as she spun back toward . "You've got demon friends! Can't they help us?"

He nodded no. "Shura has blocked all paths from demon world to anywhere on this continent."

"Damnit!" she screamed again, this time it was so loud it hurt Yukasa's ears.

"However," Kurama said. "There's a possibility of getting a form of reinforcement. It's risky, but if we do nothing we're certain to die."

"Well what the hell is it!" Bayton screamed.

"We need to all discuss this as a group. Come down stairs and we'll discuss this with Kuwabara." He went down stairs, and Bayton followed.

Yukasa looked down at his mother. She looked so peaceful, and he wished that he could tell her how sorry he was for not being able to protect her. He squeezed her hand hoping that in some way that would convey all his emotions. He didn't want to let go of his mother's hand, but he knew he had too.

"Please take good care of her," he said to .

"She's been a friend of mine for 20 years, I promise I'll do everything I can."

Yukasa nodded and reluctantly let go of his mother's hand.

was clearly either the most reckless fighter or the worst fighter in the group because he was the most injured. He had a black eye, several tears in his clothes, and his left arm was in a sling. He was sitting at the end of one of the larger tables in the center of the restaurant, and sat at on the opposite side.

"Kuwabara," said interlocking his fingers. "Gun to your head, do you think Yusuke is still alive?"

"What?" Yukasa and Bayton said in unison.

chuckled slightly and then said "You don't need to put a gun to my head, I would answer the same way every time. I know he's alive."

"What?!" Yukasa and Bayton said again. "Are you stupid?" Bayton added.

"Shut Up!" said. "Every year around this time I feel Urameshi's energy."

"I have felt the same thing, friend," said. "When Yukasa's powers awakened did you feel Yusuke's energy get stronger as well?"

"Yeah by a lot," he said leaning his chair back. "Before it was just a light feeling, thought it might have been a trick in my head, but now I know it. Urameshi is alive."

Yukasa sat down. He felt slightly dizzy and a strange mix of elated and terrified. He was happy that his father might be alive, but would his dad actually like him as a person, what about his powers, what about all the changes his mother had made to the restaurant, and of course would he need to move out of the study?

"You alright dude?" Bayton asked.

"Yeah, sorry. It's just a lot."

"Ok Kuwabara," Dr. Minamino continued. "Now where is Shura."

The smile on 's face faded.

"He's right next to Urameshi."

"That's what I thought," said as he stood up and paced. "It looks to me that what happened to Yusuke ten years ago is that Shura somehow forced him in-between Human World and Demon World."

"That's why he was with us on the Demon World side of the portal, but not on the Human World side."

"Precisely, I also think that Yusuke is somehow using Yukasa's energy to stay alive." said and then he turned to Yukasa. "I think this is the most likely reason for your spirit energy suddenly halting development 10 years ago."

"So when I awakened my spirit powers today the reason I passed out afterwards was because dad drained a lot of my energy?" Yukasa surmised. smiled.

"Exactly," he said. "And the reason Yusuke's energy resurfaces every year around this time is that wherever he is between worlds he is closer to human world this time of year. I think Shura knows all that and decided that to get rid of your father absolutely he'd have to kill you today, the day before your father would be closest to Human World."

"Okay, this is all fascinating," Bayton said in a tone that let everyone know it wasn't fascinating. "But how the hell does this help us not die?"

"If I can get to dad then he might be able to pull himself into Human world," Yukasa said. "That's the reinforcements you were talking about right ?"

nodded yes.

"Kuwabara and I will stay here. I'll use a special plant I have to mimic your spirit energy so Shura will think you're still here. Hopefully Shura is running low on men or now that your powers have awakened he'll think he needs to come here himself. We'll do our best to ward him off."

"But how do you know that dad will be able to beat Shura? If he's as scary as you guys seem to think he is…"

walked over to Yukasa and placed his hand on his shoulder.

"If there's one thing I learned while working with your father it is that if you are putting limitations on him you don't know him well enough." removed his hand and smiled.

"Yeah!" Mr. Kuwabara said. "Urameshi was famous for suddenly getting more power just when you thought you'd beaten him."

"Like I did today," Yukasa said his chest filling with pride.

"Yes," Dr. Minamino said. "You filled some of your father's shoes today, and now it's time to bring him home."


	7. Chapter 7

Yukasa's family ramen shop was on the edge of town and just a few blocks away the house and and sidewalks vanished completely into a wilderness. It wasn't like an amazon jungle or anything. No exceptionally large animals and there was a highway that ran through it, but still it was wilderness nonetheless.

Bayton hacked away at any thick brush with her sword as Yukasa attempted to follow the map in his hand.

"I'm amazed that wooden sword can cut through that brush so easily," he remarked pointing in a new direction.

She out her finger to her lips. Then in a very quiet voice, "It's cut from a Dragonskin tree in the spirit world. The only thing strong enough to cut it is itself."

Yukasa nodded and reexamined the map and the sky. The map said they were very close to their destination and the sky had the last streaks of red and purple fading from it. It would be dark soon and that was when he and Dr. Minamino thought the final attack would be.

"Are we close?" Bayton asked. Yukasa nodded and she sheathed her sword. He pointed again at the direction they needed to go. As they stepped through the forest, Yukasa could feel the, now familiar, sensation of his heart pounding in his chest grow. He was about to meet his father who he hadn't seen in 10 years, and he'd have to tell him about all the things that happened in his life. He'd have to explain that he was on the academic bowl team, that he was in the drama club, that all of his teachers loved him, and that he wanted to be a cop. That last one was the only thing that he really wanted to tell his father. He wondered if he should open with that or close with that? Or maybe he should close with "Now let's go kill Shura and save the day". That might be a good opportunity for some father and son bonding. Whatever the hell that was supposed to be.

There was a large snap from under his foot. Bayton turned around her hand on the hilt of her sword. Yukasa nodded no and pointed that the stick he'd broken. After Bayton flipped him the bird, she turned around with a humph. He was more careful to avoid the sticks.

A few minutes later, Yukasa was still wondering what his opening line to his father should be when Bayton stopped. She pointed over to a clearing with a strange light coming from the center. The light was bright blue in color and didn't flicker or move like it was some kind of LED, but it was far too big and bright for that. Yukasa looked at the map as best he could with such little light, and guessed that the clearing was where they were supposed to go. He nodded yes and he and Bayton approached the end of the clearing. Yukasa stood behind a large tree and leaned slightly to see inside.

He meant to look at the rest of the clearing, but what was in the center attracted all his attention.

It was his father. It had been 10 years since Yukasa had seen his father, but there was no mistaking it. He was an averaged sized man with dark hair wearing a brown leather jacket, but Yukasa could see his eyes. They were a dark brown eyes that still expressed everything. They were Yukasa's eyes. The same eyes he saw every day in the mirror. His father was also the source of the light. He looked like he was mid run and he was glowing with the unnatural blue light. Yukasa felt like his heart was going to burst if he didn't get to his father. So he ran for him.

He didn't know he could run so fast being so exhausted, but the rest of the clearing was a blur to him he reached out and touched his father hoping that it would bring him back. Instead he burned the tip of his hand as if he'd been touching a flame.

"He's still between worlds, child," said a voice from behind him. Yukasa felt his heart hit his stomach. He swallowed the lump of fear in his throat harden to ice and turned to face the voice.

He was of average height, with long black hair, and tall pointed ears. He would have looked like some sort of elf if it weren't for the two horns that sprouted from his forehead and bent downward and slightly out like they were some kind of antenna.

"You're Shura I assume?" Yukasa asked, his voice high and frail with fear, even though he'd attempted to hide it.

The demon gave a snarky smile. "I'm impressed you're not charging at me like your idiot father would."

"Dad and I fight differently," Yukasa said not actually knowing anything about his father's fighting style.

Shura smiled wider and raised his hand like it was a sideways finger gun.

"Well I hope not too different because then you wouldn't be able to appreciate the tragedy of dying from my Devils Gun!"

Yukasa's mind suddenly spun into overdrive looking for a way to survive.

- _He doesn't realize that his gun is actually going up and to the left, -_ he realized. - _If I dive down and to the right he might miss me. I might even be able to get a shot off. –_

Yukasa saw the green energy building on the tip of Shura's finger, and dove. The bullet grazed his shoulder, and before he hit the ground he fired his spirit gun. The bright blue bullet was slightly larger than last time, but had a much less impressive effect. It connected with Shura's face, but the demon acted like he'd been slapped. That was until Bayton came out from behind her tree and slashed Shura across the back.

Shura screamed and pivoted around catching Bayton with the back of his hand. His friend literally went flying over toward a tree. She hit it with her right side, spun around, and landed on her back with a loud thud.

Yukasa attempted to get up, but Shura grabbed the center of his shirt before he'd even had the chance to realize what was going on.

"You're just like your father," Shura said. His breath smelled like rotting flesh. "A bastard with not enough decency to just DIE!"

Shura slammed Yukasa into the ground with so much force Yukasa could fell his sternum crack and his chest was on fire with pain. Then Shura spread his hand out like he was feeling Yukasa's chest. Yukasa felt the energy before he felt the attack. The power differential between himself and Shura was unreal. The only thing Yukasa could compare it to in that moment was like firing a BB gun at a tank. The attack caused Yukasa's entire body to feel like a ton had been dropped on him. He felt the earth under him indent with the pressure. He could feel every bone in his body because they were all broken. He wanted to scream, but he couldn't move all he could do was feel the excruciating pain, all of his nerve endings were on fire.

Shura placed his finger on Yukasa's skull and fired.

His death was instantaneous.

"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!"

Yukasa bolted up right at the sound of the voice. It was high-pitched and sounded like a child. He looked up and saw a preteen with purple robes, khakis, a pacifier and a tattoo of the symbol for junior on his head.

- _Wait What? -_ Yukasa thought. He rubbed his eyes and the pacifier, and tattoo was still there.

"Do you want to become a spirit detective?" the boy asked.

"What? Who are you?" Yukasa asked.

"I'm Koenma, Prince of Spirit World. You need to answer the question _now_ before Shura eats your soul!"

"Wait are you Bayton's boss?"

"Yes! Now, no more waiting it's extremely hard to keep Shura stopped," he said. Yukasa looked past Koenma. Shura was standing a few feet away from his corpse, not moving as if time had stopped around him.

"I need an answer _now_ Yukasa!" Koenma screamed again.

He knew the answer when he'd first heard the term this morning. "Yes," Yukasa said.

"Bayton!" Koenma yelled. He pointed at Yukasa's body and it began to glow with a mysterious purple colored aura. Bayton stumbled over to the body and sat down next to it. She collected her hair in her left hand.

"God I wish I was straight," she moaned with a look of disgust. Then she kissed him.

"What the fuck is that for!" Yukasa screamed.

"She's giving you some of her life energy in order to help stabilize your body's wavelength so you can reenter it," Koenma said.

"What!" Yukasa asked again.

"Technical mumbo-jumbo for you about to go back to the fight so get ready!"

Suddenly the world was consumed by a bright white light.

When Yukasa sat up he felt good as new and the first thing he did when he was fully conscious was fire his spirit gun at Shura's face.

Shura literally flicked it way, like it was some annoying plush toy a kid had thrown at him.

Yukasa's heart sank to his gut and Shura started laughing.

"Hahaha!" he bellowed. "They made you a spirit detective! They must not think very highly of me! I'll have to pay Spirit World a visit once I am done here." Shura took a step toward Yukasa and Bayton. Yukasa tried to get up and run, but he was already so exhausted. He'd only fired one bullet how'd he become so tired so quickly?

"Take one more step toward my son Shura and you won't live to regret it."

The voice was unmistakable. Yukasa turned his head and looked at his father. He was still glowing, but now Yukasa could feel why. His energy was incredible just like Shura's. He was no longer frozen, but those same eyes that Yukasa had recognized earlier were somehow darker. They resembled the eyes of a war veteran, eyes that had seen too much. Yukasa had seen those eyes only once when he went to the NYPD. They were the eyes of some of the older cops that worked rape and homicide. He had wondered what kinds of things his father had seen, but now he was too afraid to ask.

Shura charged Yusuke so quickly Yukasa wasn't sure if he ran or teleported, but somehow even with that incredible speed his father caught Shura's punch. Suddenly Shura's green energy flared and so did his father's. The ground under them indented and they were in the center of a crater five feet wide. Yusuke delivered a right hook to Shura's face and sent him flying through two trees before he stopped smashing into a third.

Shura was back at his father in a second, but now the blows and blocks were coming too fast for Yukasa to see. It was a blur of fists from Shura and blocks from his father. Suddenly Shura jumped back and put his hand out in front of him while holding his wrist with the other hand. A small orb of orange red energy appeared in his palm. Then it burst like a bomb. The blow out of energy was like a nova exploding from a collapsing star. It consumed everything in front of Shura. At the tip of the cone, it must have been thirty feet wide easily and the devastation went ahead of him for fifty feet.

"You know, that might have really hurt if it had actually hit me."

Yukasa looked behind himself to see his father. Yukasa hadn't even seen him move away from the blast, but there he was standing strong and tall.

Yusuke's fists lite up with bright blue energy and he jumped over Yukasa. Shura didn't have time to block when Yusuke delivered a left hook to Shura's face sending him to the ground.

"Now, don't get up Shura," Yusuke said like he was talking to a child. "I don't have any respect for you but I owe you something for having to kill your father. But now consider us even."

Yusuke turned his back and smiled at his son.

"We'll what do you think of your old man! Pretty cool huh?!"

Before Yukasa had a chance to answer Shura sat up his hand in the devil's gun position.

"Da-!" was all Yukasa was able to say before his father spun back around.

"Spirt Gun," his father said. An incredible star burst of energy came from his finger tip. The blast occurred quickly, and when the energy dissipated there was only a crater where Shura had been moments before.


	8. Chapter 8

Bayton didn't believe what she had just seen. Shura the major concern of Spirit World for the past ten years had literally just been blown off the face of the map. The worst part was Yusuke had done it so easily. Shura had never even been a threat. She'd heard stories from people about how he'd killed the Saint Beasts at fifteen, won the Dark Tournament at sixteen, started the Makai tournaments at seventeen, and then became a ruling party leader in Demon World shortly thereafter. None of that had really sunk in until now. She had just thought of it as a list of accomplishments like everyone had on a resume, but it was only now that she realized how incredible that resume was.

"So," Yusuke said as he turned around to face her and Yukasa. His chest was puffed out and his face was consumed in a smile. He was clearly proud of himself. "Are you impressed with your old man?"

 _-Yes, -_ Bayton thought. _–In every sense of the word. –_

"Eh," Yukasa said.

Bayton looked at him in surprise.

"Eh?" Yusuke asked his demeanor suddenly deflating.

"I mean it was cool," Yukasa said. "But Shura did that big one over there."

"What!" Yusuke yelled. "But I bet you he can't do that 99 more times!"

"Or any more times considering he's now a pile of ashes," Bayton said.

Yusuke looked at her and smiled. "Thanks," he said, and he actually sounded genuinely sincere.

"Oh! No doubt you kicked Shura's ass, but I mean even I got a shot in on the guy and I've only had these powers for a few hours," Yukasa said attempting to stand, but ending up just sitting up.

"I think that's because you tapped into one of the greatest secrets of the Urameshi line!"

Yukasa looked up to his father with a smile.

"What's that dad?"

"Beginner's luck!"

They both laughed at this stupid joke, and Bayton couldn't help but smile because it was the same laugh. One was older and stronger, one was younger and weaker, but it was impossible to miss that it was the same laugh. It was here too that Bayton realized that she had just entered on a journey like the one Yusuke had taken, with different trials, tribulations, and a way different style, but same result. She and her friend were going to change the world.


End file.
